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Tesco Philip Clarke

Tesco agrees £1.2m payoff to ousted chief Philip Clarke

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

February 3, 2015 | 2 min read

Tesco will lift the suspension upon a £1.2m payment owed to former chief executive Philip Clarke, it confirmed today.

The retailer, which currently faces a battle to make up capital after it overstated its profits by over £263m last year, will pay £1.2m to former head Philip Clarke who was last week slammed by his predecessor Sir Terry Leahy who blamed the retailer’s current state on Clarke’s “failure of leadership”.

Former chief finance officer Laurie McIlwee will also receive just under £1m as the firm failed to establish any gross misconduct against him or Clarke during their time at the company.

The payments were being withheld as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigates the company's £263m void, however the retailer has decided to release the payments.

A Tesco statement said: “The company has taken legal advice and has concluded that it does not have the basis for continuing to withhold the payments. Accordingly, the board considers that defending costly claims for the payments would not be in the company’s best interests.

“The SFO continues to investigate the commercial income issue. If new information were to come to light which would change this assessment, the company will pursue recovery of the payments and damages and has fully reserved all its legal rights in this respect.”

Just last week, new Morrisons chairman, Andrew Higginson last week dubbed Clarke’s tenure at the helm of Tesco as “a failure of management”.

Tesco Philip Clarke

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